SUSPECTED Islamic State gunmen killed at least 14 people, including two newborn babies, after attacking a hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul yesterday.

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Special forces rescued around 100 people from Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital, a clinic ran by the charity Doctors Without Borders. Heavily armed forces were seen carrying babies away - at least one wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket. Three militant gunmen dressed in police uniforms launched grenades and shot at women and children after storming the facility yesterday morning.

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Mothers, babies and nurses were among those killed, according to officials. Another 15 people, including a number of children, were injured.

Doctors leapt to an adjacent building while some were trapped inside the hospital as the terrorists exchanged gunfire with Afghan special forces, which were backed by British and American troops, according to reports.

The militants held siege before security forces killed them in a battle which lasted several hours, the interior ministry said.

Médecins Sans Frontières confirmed that the hospital had been attacked and staff and patients were being evacuated.

Just hours before it had tweeted a photo of a newborn infant at the clinic in his mother’s arms after being delivered safely by emergency caesarean section.

The Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital is located in the west of Kabul, home to the capital’s minority Shiite Hazara community -- a frequent target of Sunni militants from the Islamic State group.

Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital in Kabul (Image: Frederic Bonnot/MSF)

Deputy health minister Waheed Majroh said: “Hospitals and health workers must not be attacked. We call on all sides to stop attacking hospitals and health workers.”

Rights group Amnesty International said: “The unconscionable war crimes in Afghanistan today, targeting a maternity hospital and a funeral, must awaken the world to the horrors civilians continue to face.

“There must be accountability for these grave crimes.”

Around an hour later, a suicide bomber killed at least 24 people at the funeral of a local police commander in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province.

The attacker detonated his explosives in the middle of the ceremony.

The violence comes just a day after four roadside bombs exploded in a northern district of Kabul, wounding four civilians including a child.